Tenora & Tenora Prime: The Octave's Ensemble (Rework)

[bnuy]

  

Hi Tenno! Welcome to one of my shorter Warframe Rebalance threads that focus on individual weapon reworks!
 

Design Goals:

The first thing I always ask myself when reworking a weapon is does this weapon have an identity? If it already has an identity and some unique aspect, then I consider it a healthy weapon. Weapons that lack some unique function or identity will inherently fall out of favour, as there is nothing to keep players interested. When a unique weapon exists, many players can find enjoyment in it, without an identity a weapon needs to rely on sheer power alone to remain favourable. These are the many reasons that weapons need to be given a unique identity, otherwise it will contribute to weapons needing to be power crept to find any use. The main questions I ask myself are as follows...

1. What makes the weapon unique?
   • What makes the Tenora unique is it's spool mechanic and alternate fire, which themselves aren't even that unique.
2. Is the weapon actually used by players?
   • The Tenora has a very small niche playerbase despite having no truly unique and defining features.
3. How powerful should this weapon be?
   • The vanilla Tenora has a Mastery requirement of 10, so it should be reasonably powerful.
   • The Tenora Prime has a Mastery requirement of 14 and because of this it should be among some of the most powerful weapons.

These questions help me refine the design direction I want to take with the rework. I am able to figure out if the weapon needs to have some new unique functions added to enhance how engaging it feels, or if it simply needs some stat changes and other tweaks to fall in line with where it should be.

Weak Weapon Identity?
Yes, the Tenora weapon family suffers a lack of real identity, they have some semi unique mechanics but they aren't engaging or interesting enough to draw many players to them. I think emphasizing and enhancing the musical theme of the weapon would be a great way to increase it's player retention and usage stats, as well as make it memorable and unique.

Tenora

Spoiler

• Mechanics:
  • Primary Fire:
    • MB1: A slow firing fully automatic weapon that creates a musical rhythm, empowering every round
                fired continuously that is a multiple of 4, with multiples of 16 being further empowered.
      • Every 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th shots when fired continously will be empowered.
      • Every empowered round plays a random musical note from the mandachord.
      • Releasing and re-pressing the trigger within any bullet's firing delay window will
        continue the rhythm and ready the next bullet in sequence as an alternate fire.
  • Alternate Fire:
    • MB3: Semi automatic heavy piercing round, if used in combination with the automatic fire
                it instead overwrites the next bullet fired from it.
      • This firing mode has an increased ammo cost of 3.
      • Alternate fire inputs will not disrupt the primary fire if it is being held,
        but will instead replace the next bullet fired from the automatic mode.
         
• Stats:
  • Mastery Rank: 10
  • Magazine: 64
  • Reload Speed: 4.00s
  • Primary Fire: (Automatic)
    • Ammo Cost: 1
    • Accuracy: 18
    • Fire-rate: 4.00
    • Damage: 21 impact, 28 puncture, 21 slash (70.00)
    • Critical Chance: 12.00%
    • Critical Damage: 2.00x
    • Status Chance: 12.00%
  • Alternate Fire: (Semi-automatic)
    • Ammo Cost: 3
    • Accuracy: 23
    • Fire-rate: 1.33
    • Punch-through: 2.50m
    • Damage: 21 impact, 126 puncture, 63 slash (210.00)
    • Critical Chance: 24.00%
    • Critical Damage: 2.50x
    • Status Chance: 6.00%
  • Empowered Rhythm:
    • Empowered (x4, x8, x12):
      • +0.50x Base Critical Damage
      • +4.00% Base Critical Chance
      • +4.00% Base Status Chance
    • Empowered (x16):
      • +1.00x Base Critical Damage
      • +16.00% Base Critical Chance
      • +16.00% Base Status Chance
    • Alternate Fire Window: 100.00% of firing delay.
      • At the base fire-rate of 4.00 each round has a 0.25s delay after the previous shot before it is readied,
        you have this full 0.25s between every shot. If you use the alternate fire during this time the next
        round fired from the fully automatic mode will be an alternate fire heavy piercing round.

As always with my redesigns to weapons, the variants will get small tweaks to some of the unique parts of the weapon to distinguish it from the original while keeping the same mechanical feel when using the weapon.

Tenora Prime

Spoiler

• Mechanics:
  • Primary Fire:
    • MB1: A slow firing fully automatic weapon that creates a musical rhythm, empowering every round
                fired continuously that is a multiple of 4, with multiples of 16 being further empowered.
      • Every 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th shots when fired continously will be empowered.
      • Every empowered round plays a random musical note from the mandachord.
      • Releasing and re-pressing the trigger within any bullet's firing delay window will
        continue the rhythm and ready the next bullet in sequence as an alternate fire.
  • Alternate Fire:
    • MB3: Semi automatic heavy piercing round, if used in combination with the automatic fire
                it instead overwrites the next bullet fired from it.
      • This firing mode has an increased ammo cost of 3.
      • Alternate fire inputs will not disrupt the primary fire if it is being held,
        but will instead replace the next bullet fired from the automatic mode.
         
• Stats:
  • Mastery Rank: 14
  • Magazine: 64
  • Reload Speed: 3.20s
  • Primary Fire: (Automatic)
    • Ammo Cost: 1
    • Accuracy: 18
    • Fire-rate: 4.00
    • Damage: 22 impact, 36 puncture, 22 slash (80.00)
    • Critical Chance: 16.00%
    • Critical Damage: 2.00x
    • Status Chance: 16.00%
  • Alternate Fire: (Semi-automatic)
    • Ammo Cost: 3
    • Accuracy: 23
    • Fire-rate: 1.33
    • Punch-through: 3.00m
    • Damage: 24 impact, 144 puncture, 72 slash (240.00)
    • Critical Chance: 32.00%
    • Critical Damage: 3.00x
    • Status Chance: 8.00%
  • Empowered Rhythm:
    • Empowered (x4, x8, x12):
      • +10.00% Base Damage as Radiation
      • +0.50x Base Critical Damage
      • +4.00% Base Critical Chance
      • +4.00% Base Status Chance
    • Empowered (x16):
      • +40.00% Base Damage as Radiation
      • +1.00x Base Critical Damage
      • +16.00% Base Dritical Chance
      • +16.00% Base Status Chance
    • Empowered Window: 100.00% of firing delay.
      • At the base fire-rate of 4.00 each round has a 0.25s delay after the previous shot before it is readied,
        you have this full 0.25s between every shot. If you use the alternate fire during this time the next
        round fired from the fully automatic mode will be an alternate fire heavy piercing round.

Conclusion:
The Tenora has always been a confusing weapon to me, it felt like they wanted to push a music/rhythm theme with it but never made it very prevalent in the weapon. I hope these changes I've written up sound interesting to y'all, I'd love to see something similar implemented to the actual game.

Looking forward to seeing what y'all think about these ideas for a Tenora rework!

Edited May 11, 2023 by bnuy
finalized

[Nani]

10/10

[Nani]

3 hours ago, bnuy said:

• Primary Fire:
  • MB1: A slow firing fully automatic mode that creates a musical rhythm, empowering every continuous
              shot that is a multiple of 4, with multiples of 16 being further empowered.
    • while firing continously every 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th shots will be empowered
    • plays a random musical note from the mandachord for every empowered shot

I really like this concept, especially the primary fire. It plays well into a musical theme. Clearly a reference to a standard 4/4 time signature in music, where there are four beats per measure. Really cool idea!

Edited May 10, 2023 by Nani

[Tiltskillet]

So you're drastically slowing it down, or is it spooling up all the way from 4 RoF?  Or are you removing the spool up too?

These are very cool concepts for a new weapon, but I really like the character of the Tenora as is.  I know, the musical theme...  I tell you what: I'll grudgingly give DE permission to apply them to the Pandero if they must, since that's a weapon I don't particularly care about.  :P

[bnuy]

3 hours ago, Tiltskillet said:

So you're drastically slowing it down, or is it spooling up all the way from 4 RoF?  Or are you removing the spool up too?

These are very cool concepts for a new weapon, but I really like the character of the Tenora as is.  I know, the musical theme...  I tell you what: I'll grudgingly give DE permission to apply them to the Pandero if they must, since that's a weapon I don't particularly care about.  :P

No longer spools, just a slow firing auto rifle that plays music.

[(XBOX)KayAitch]

On 2023-05-10 at 8:38 PM, bnuy said:

Every empowered round plays a random musical note from the mandachord

The fire rate I like on my Tenora is a hose of bullets at full spin, this would sound terrible.

On 2023-05-10 at 8:38 PM, bnuy said:

Weak Weapon Identity?
Yes, the Tenora weapon family suffers a lack of real identity, they have some semi unique mechanics but they aren't engaging or interesting enough to draw many players to them

I disagree - the sound design on the Tenora is great and while it shares the spin-up mechanic with the Gorgon they feel quite different.

And just to be clear, I'm an L3 player and the original Tenora is still my most used weapon over the decade I've been playing.

The Tenora's problem is that it just doesn't do enough damage. It will mow through low level enemies, but individual bullets do very little, meaning attrition or status resistant enemies can just ignore it. 

Then there's the secondary fire, which does a lot more damage, but a) is slow to charge and b) fires the moment it charges which makes it a pain to aim.

It needs more damage, and an alt fire that's more usable.

On 2023-05-10 at 8:38 PM, bnuy said:

         fired continuously that is a multiple of 4, with multiples of 16 being further empowered.

• Every 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th shots when fired continously will be empowered

 

I like the general idea of it doing a 4/4 beat, but in practice it's going to blur by.

Also, it needs to match up with our Mandachord song, which may be 4/3 or something else, but isn't going to be in time. Even if you can get it in time it only takes a Volt or Wisp nearby to make it sound awful.

How about we borrow one of the Duviri decrees? Each successive hit on the same enemy does 10% more damage, and (maybe) plays a note on a rising scale?

On 2023-05-10 at 8:38 PM, bnuy said:

Alternate Fire:

• MB3: Semi automatic heavy piercing round, if used in combination with the automatic fire
            it instead overwrites the next bullet fired from it

I'm not a big fan of alt fire changes next shot modes. I'd rather alt either switches (like the Fulmin) or fires (like the Tenora does now). I just want to be able to hold it so I can aim more easily.

It needs to keep the big damage boost - it's your tool for Acolytes, Liches and Demolysts, it needs far better damage per shot.

Edited May 15, 2023 by (XBOX)KayAitch